“Stay is a charming word in a friend’s vocabulary.”

I’d rather take coffee than compliments now.

Honesty is the best policy, in love as in law.

Don’t shut yourself up in a band box because you are a woman, but understand what is going on, and educate yourself to take part in the world’s work, for it all affects you and yours.

Love is a great beautifier.

Wild roses are fairest, and nature a better gardener than art.

There is very little real liberty in the world; even those who seem freest are often the most tightly bound. Law, custom, public opinion, fear or shame make slaves of us all, as you will find when you try your experiment.

Some books are so familiar that reading them is like being home again.

Marriage, they say, halves one’s rights and doubles one’s duties.

My book came out; and people began to think that topsy-turvy Louisa would amount to something after all.

Nothing is impossible to a determined woman.

It takes so little to make a child happy, that it is a pity in a world full of sunshine and pleasant things, that there should be any wistful faces, empty hands, or lonely little hearts.

Be comforted, dear soul! There is always light behind the clouds.

It takes very little fire to make a great deal of smoke nowadays, and notoriety is not real glory.

Don’t try to make me grow up before my time.

Father asked us what was God’s noblest work. Anna said men, but I said babies. Men are often bad, but babies never are.

Happy is the son whose faith in his mother remains unchallenged.

There is entirely too much charm around, and something must be done to stop it.

A woman loses a charm with every pin she takes out.

I am ugly but what I do have is charm.

I think romance is anything honest. As long as it’s honest, it’s so disarming.

Our native land charms us with inexpressible sweetness, and never, never allows us to forget that we belong to it.

I can have oodles of charm when I want to.

Stupidity has a certain charm – ignorance does not.

air castles are often within our grasp late in life, but then they charm not.